Your best watch brands in the UK

Gifting inspiration from the UK’s best watch brands (according to you)

We’ve made no bones about the fact that we think a watch is the perfect gift. It’s personal, practical and has longevity – you can’t say that about a novelty jumper. However, we do acknowledge that, with so much choice out there it can be hard to know where to start.

First up here’s your TOP 10 LUXURY brands…

TAG Heuer is your No.1 Luxury Watch Brand

At number one is TAG Heuer. When you get Cara on board and then follow that up with a Hadid, you are certainly going to get noticed. Its fashion-forward styles are perfect for young women – for the troublesome teen the Bella Hadid Limited Edition TAG Heuer Link is a must! RRP £4,650.

While clever reissues of vintage designs to get watch connoisseurs salivating. Any gentleman in your life with a passing interest in watches will have the reissued Autavia on their wish list. RRP £4,050.

This is a brand that makes watches people want and markets them in a way that no other brand does. No wonder it has lodged itself in the watch-buying public’s mind and was the first name they thought of when asked to vote for their favourite brand.

And the rest of the best for Luxury…

Coming in at number 2 was Rolex, a brand that’s worth $8.7bn according to Forbes’s Rich List 2017. Following it was Omega which, thanks to its Speedmaster being used by NASA, can say it was the first watch brand on the Moon.

In at number four is Breguet, a brand built by the man who invented the tourbillon and at five is Cartier, which is known for producing very few round watches.

From there to Breitling, which produces a watch with a distress beacon incorporated in it so you can be rescued anywhere in the world.

In at number seven is Patek Philippe, a brand so celebrated that nine of the 10 watches attaining the highest prices at auction bore its name.

Fabergé, which is at eight, which recently won a GHPG prize with a watch with a central jumping hour that can only be seen in certain lights.

At number nine is Chanel that this year launched its first in-house movement for women, which was shaped like a camelia and finally, at ten, we have Audemars Piguet, the name responsible for the luxury steel watch trend, which it kickstarted with the now-iconic Royal Oak.

And here’s your TOP 10 Under £2,000 brands for some gifting inspiration…

Michael Kors is your No.1 Under £2,000 Watch Brand

If luxury isn’t your bag, then here’s our winner and shortlist for the under £2k category. You’re bound to find some sticking filler inspiration here.

Unsurprisingly perhaps, at number 1 is Michael Kors. Before anyone raises an eyebrow at the predictability of this winner, it is worth considering that, when it first launch its now-instantly recognisable over-sized gold-plate chronographs, the type of women it was pitching its styles to just didn’t wear watches. But past laurels aren’t why Michael Kors is a worthy 2017 winner; it’s because of how its watches have evolved.

It has produced one of the most fashion-forward smartwatches around the Sofie RRP £349 – and we’d hazard a guess that even the most entrenched watch snobs would consider wearing some of its more out there designs such as this Portia Celestia RRP £229.

It looks and feels like a more modern grown up brand. We’ve got it on our want lists.

And the rest of the best for Under £2,000…

A very close second was Fossil, a brand that has been around since 1984 and that calls Dallas its birth place. It is a long way from Dallas that our number three brand Skagen calls home – it’s actually named after a beach town in Denmark.

From Denmark to Japan, and number four in the list – Casio, a brand famous for its G-Shock watches whose prototypes were apparently tested by dropping out of the office’s third-floor toilet window. At five is Sekonda, which has the accolade of being the most popular brand in the UK since 1988.

Off back to Japan for the next two on our list, Seiko at six and Citizen at seven. The former launched the first-ever quartz watch while the latter is the world’s largest manufacturer of watches and movements.

Our first Swiss brand is in at eight – Tissot – which pioneered touch-screen technology. The unstoppable Olivia Burton is at nine; a brand so successful it was recently bought for £60m by the Movado Group.

And at number 10 we have Rotary, which made its debut on British shores in 1907.

YouTube

Error type: "Forbidden". Error message: "Access Not Configured. YouTube Data API has not been used in project 443884003998 before or it is disabled. Enable it by visiting https://console.developers.google.com/apis/api/youtube.googleapis.com/overview?project=443884003998 then retry. If you enabled this API recently, wait a few minutes for the action to propagate to our systems and retry." Domain: "usageLimits". Reason: "accessNotConfigured".